You Need an Idea Right Now?
If you are ever stuck and need ideas, you can use this great tool - go to the newspaper I use three different newspapers: The L.A. Times, The Wall Street Journal and my local paper (rural area paper). I live in a rural area so I get three news sources. One is a large city, one has to deal with commerce and the last a rural newspaper. Believe it or not, a new article will provide you with a great deal of information and includes hooks sometimes. Here you go with todays's adventure ideas:

From the L.A. Times (Local News)
Suspected Gang Leaders Arrested in Sweep
Beating Case Handed Over to Robbery-Homicide division
Vigil Planned for Missing Nursing Student

From the Wall Street Journal
Bank Confirms Data Breach
Tensions Flare in South China Sea
Goldman Scrutinized on Libya Dealings

My Local Newspaper because it is in a rural-ish area (local news)
Two Crows are Found to have West Nile Virus
Suspicious Package found and destroyed; police investigate
Low Income Senior housing Opens in town

What can you do with this?
Based on the articles here you have 9 completely different adventures. I love creating adventures in episodic form because the number of players is kind of random on my Sundays (3-6 players + me the DM) and I use the methods I am showing here to create quick, short adventures. I'm just going to pick a couple of them and show how I like to create fast adventures that take limited setup.

Tensions Flare in South China Sea - need subscription to read more than the preview but the preview is all you need.
Two Crows are Found with West Nile Virus

So, quickly thinking about the two very different adventures and looking at the articles you can find all sorts of information. Read the articles first, I included the links above if you wanted to read mine but it's not necessary. Break it down to a way that can easily convert to your game:

Tensions Flare Between Two Factions

• Who are the two factions? Two Towns
• What are they fighting over? Resources from a mine that is right between them.
• Who are the major players? The town constables and the leaders and an evil advisor playing fears against both sides to claim the mine for himself.
• Two encounters - clear the mine and face the advisor starting the fight.
• One Skill Challenge - prevent the outbreak of a war.
• Hooks

Two Diseased Animals are just the beginning of a bigger outbreak

• What does the disease do to carriers? Cackle Disease
• Who/What is behind the disease? An insane druid
• What is the Cure? there is no cure, the source must be found.
• Two Encounters - diseased minions and minions with the elite druid
• One Skill Challenge - discover where the disease is
• Hooks

I basically break it down and create three main questions to answer. I have to answer these questions with two encounters and one skill challenge. I pull almost all my monsters right out of the book when I create these episodic type adventures. As you can see though, it's easy.

I like creating hooks and they are always the last thing I do. In this case, there are all sorts of options. The player characters might know people on both sides of the town conflict, one might need them to get along in order to make some money off of the mining... all sorts of things. One of the group could get diseased or family, or firends. The town might offer some rare treasure up if the PC's can save them. There are plenty of hooks just think about it.

Time Needed to make a quick adventure with all statblocks printed and full information: 1.5 hours

The Problem =  Keeping the game under four hours with old and new players.

The Solution = Reducing the encounters and subbing with skill challenges.

My current group has two new players and two veterans of the game. So, here is my new basic format for the FHF session:

Background
Inception Point
Encounter One
Skill Challenge or Frenzy
Encounter Two
Prologue

This is a beginner template. You can add one encounter when playing with all experienced group. With this template the encounters are all complex and take around an hour to get through. One of my encounters is usually a multiple wave style encounter. Three encounters is definitely possible with a new group if they are at level. I believe that encounters for FHF should be difficult. If you play at level encounters you could probably get away with a 3-4 encounter game session.

By the way... a frenzy is basically a skill challenge that represents several fights and usually ends with the beginning of an encounter. It's sort of taking care of the rabble before facing a boss. Punishment for failing a skill challenge is different but it is usually HP damage or healing surge loss but the players can opt out to use a daily to automatically succeed a frenzy.

Here are the details of the FHF:

Background
Information on how the characters got here, the quest they accepted and what awards they will achieve. I allow some choices to the players but they are done "choose your own adventure" style... You can pick A or B. Roll a die, fail and get less rewarded. i.e. it represents the haggle. An FHF is more roll-play than roleplay.

Inception Point
This is basically exactly where the characters are right when the game starts. This is usually a short little skill challege to get the dice rolling or a really short encounter... 2-3 levels under the party.

Encounter One
This encounter is at least +1 party level in difficulty.

Skill Challenge or Frenzy
If you watch any of the old 30-minute long 80's shows there is always a challenge before the final fight with the boss, sometimes there is a montage. This is that moment.

Encounter Two
The final boss fight is usually complex. I like to have an at level encounter and a +2 party level encounter right here sometimes they are back to back and sometimes they are split up. If they are not split up the second encounter should immediately reward a milestone and everyone should have a moment to brace themselves (quick short rest - encounter power recharge).

Prologue
Finish off the episode. In my games, the episodes end with the characters basically riding off into the sunset. Well, they sail off into the Wild Astral in my astral sea spelljammer-ish game right now.

I create magic items that either my monsters can use or there is some way to get a hold of it and it is usually at the monster level and fits the theme of the monster (gives them a power sometimes too) - I don't give the bonus from the item because there is some threshold rule somewhere - so I just ignore bonuses from magic items unless they are specific (i.e. +2 on opportunity attacks).

So here is my basic treasure distribution:

• Only give magic treasure with elite or solo encounters.
• Most of the treasure is located on the creature or somewhere in the lair if encountered there.
• No magic items are randomly given.
• For an elite creature, the magic item is at level +1 or under. For an elite, the magic item is level +2 or under. Elite creatures have a maximum of two items, Solo creatures can have three.
• In cases where a magic item cannot be given because a creature cannot wield or carry it and has no care for treasure, create a parcel that has the items in question converted to gold and silver.
• Create a background for every item - I just use the backgrounds for characters and then create a little backstory. Every magic item in my game that is Level 6 or higher has a very brief three sentence story.
• All items need to be identified (via skill) and the story is given along with the item card or description.

... so I dug up old Spelljammer stuff, borrowed some from a friend that I knew had the books and I did some research on what I liked and what I didn't -- and what I thought players would like and what would just waste time and be boring.

So, I am going to post a couple blog posts about it and if enough people like it, I'll probably start doing more. It's not spelljammer. I don't want it to be a copy. I love the name and have kept it but only has a single legendary living ship, as it should be. So here is some quick and very rough information from my Astral Sea. Let me know what you think.

The Wild Astral

As a ship or creature travels further from the horizon of the Astral Sea it becomes much more dangerous to traverse. Everything from astral and psychic storms to primordial plasma float in the Wild Sea above and below the horizon. The Wild Astral is used by travelers seeking to move swiftly – but dangerously – from one point to another. The astral wind streams of the wild seas are very strong and ships can sometimes move twice as fast in these streams. Unlike the consistent wind streams of the horizon, the wild sea is filled with powerful and ever changing turbulent winds.

The Deep Astral Sea

Between the realms and dominions the deep astral sea awaits. Most of the astral sea is considered the deep astral. Away from the domains and realms the deep astral is home to floating motes and islands, lost dominions, continent sized civilizations, planets holding billions of lives, ghost ships and much, much more. There are astral storms and other hazards but not nearly as common as in the wild sea above and below the horizon.

Aether Seas

Most domains and realms are surrounded by Ether Seas. Every Ether Sea is different depending on the domain or realm. These seas are very dense and movement comes to a crawl. Many attempts have been attempted at capturing and saving the matter that makes up the Aether Seas but they have all failed the substance vanishes when removed from the sea.

Aether Seas serve as a sort of lubricant of a domain or realm. The Aether tends to echo the domain or realm. If it is an angelic realm, the Aether Sea around tends to be peaceful and beautiful. While an evil realm, might be surrounded by a dark and inky Aether Sea filled with predators.

The Aether Sea lies just on the outside of the Colored Veil that surrounds the Dominion. Most islands that surround a dominion lie outside of the Aether Sea that surrounds the veil.

Riding a colored or ribbon usually will bring an astral ship to the edge of the Aether Sea that surrounds the veil.

The Astral Horizon

The astral horizon is a flat plane extending to the infinite. The astral horizon is filled with very consistent astral wind streams. Many of these streams are mapped and have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Almost all colored dominion strands touch the horizon. The horizon is filled with other dangers though. Because of the consistency and mapped trade streams pirates, raiders and other dangers are common in well traveled areas. Most domains and realms also have their axis level to the horizon. Travel on the horizon is easier but slower than the wild astral seas.

Colored Strands/Ribbons

Like colored tentacles stretching across the astral sea, the colored strands and ribbons are capable of pushing a ship at high speeds. Colored strands are one way and have powerful winds that push a ship 5-10 times normal speed. There is a difference between strands and ribbons. Strands are smaller and one way trips to the dominion or realm. Ribbons are much larger than strands and have multiple streams offering two way routes. Only smaller ships and creatures are capable of using strands. It is not uncommon for pirates to ambush large ships escaping on a strand where the larger ships cannot follow.

Riding a strand or ribbon is usually not a problem and many ships can be pulled into them accidentally, riding them regardless of what the captain or helmsman tries. Exiting a strand or ribbon in the middle of a trip is very dangerous and more often than not will destroy a ship or at least disable it. Prematurely exiting a strand or ribbon is akin to dropping an egg onto sand. Only the best helmsmen are capable of keeping a ship from tearing itself apart when exiting.

Colored Veils

From great distances a domain or realm has a visible nebula, called a veil by astral travelers. A veil surrounds a dominion. A dominion veil might only be a few thousand miles across in the astral sea, or perhaps even just hundreds but within the veil is an entire world and sometimes several worlds or even an infinite expanse. Most spelljammers view a veil as a large portal into the dominion. Entering a dominion will almost always take a ship or creature to a fixed point. Some dominions will randomly throw a traveler into a random location. Some ships have been found deep underground with no explanation as to how they got there. Ships and creatures found like this usually entered a dominion and were randomly teleported into a mountainside.

To say the least, I am pretty upset at the whole thing. The monster builder is nothing now. It takes more time to load just to increase a level than it does to do it manually real quick.

The only reason I now have the Insider account is for the tools. I don't really read Dungeon or Dragon mag anymore since it went digital, maybe a couple adventures and half a dozen articles when I used to read every single one... and subscribed for years. I still enjoy the character generator. The virtual table is pretty cool....

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONSTER BUILDER!?!?

I don't read the forums a lot but glanced around quickly and all I saw were rants similar to mine with no reason for abandoning the good Monster Builder and replaced it with pretty much what the compendium is. You can't add a template to any creatures, you can't change abilities so basically I see it as offering me even less for my money than I had before the change.

I want it changed back or at least get an answer to why the change came. I am currently putting together my own monster builder spreadsheet but I really liked the one that was offered with my Insider and the monster builder was the primary reason I even had DDI...

There have been a few things that have been pushing me to stop buying books too... the essentials is just confusing, it seems to just be repeated the content from other books, with large typefaces to take up more room and make the book seem larger. I love 4th edition but I think there is something going on within WotC, leadership that is focusing on the wrong things. (I have my BSBA and understand Brand Management, Marketing and all that good stuff - also have an BFA) So, I am not shooting from the hip when I say "People don't randomly get into D&D by buying an 'Essentials' product" - They get into Dungeons and Dragons from people like me, their cousins, an older generation gamer that says "Sure, you can get in on this game." Bam. New fan.

The straw that broke my back was losing the old Monster Builder. It worked pretty good, everything has flaws. The new one is just like having a monster manual but you have to have a computer and sit around and watch it load. It is the compendium and barely anything more. So many small things have been eating at me lately that I think I might just be done buying books, cancel Insider and maybe see what happens because since 4th Edition came out, they have given very little and even taken away or failed on other offerings.

To the over 200 friends I have here, I love 4th Edition. I really like a couple of the newest books and have almost every book released so far. Sure, they have made their money off me but I did so willingly, I had the support I wanted from Insider and enjoyed it. Now, I am starting to look at what is going on with the digital tools... look at the original Virtual Table... it was all 3D and cool looking, what happened? I know of a couple Virtual Tabletop programs that work just as good and one that works better.

Sorry about the rant. Just pretty upset today when I wanted to mess around and make monsters with the "old" Monster Builder... I guess I will return to my old friend the pen and paper to etch out my monsters.

Quick Glance at FHF: Four Hour Frenzy is a game play style developed by me and taken from my Living Greyhawk experiences, Dungeon Delve and the fact that my friends and I are professionals and business owners that can't game for a whole day but we want to get in a good session in a small amount of time. It started with just a template to create my adventures and has expanded into a sort of manual to save time and create FHF adventures.

So... my first campaign for the system is getting put together right now. Based around short episodic adventures, the campaign doesn't really have open ended adventures in the sense of the adventure paths we have seen for the last 8 or so years coming out of the Dungeon mag and Pathfinder games. My games are more like the old A-Team series than something like Lost. I try and wrap up the game from beginning to end in one session.

THE AGE OF RUIN CONCEPT

When reading the 4th edition and the entire bright lights in a world of darkness aspect. I decided to take the world of Dungeons and Dragons in a time where things were good and destroy it. How did the world get to be a world of darkness... in my campaign it is a world where light has fought back evil and chased it deep into the earth and in a single generation the old 'lights in the darkness' have achieved retirement, few heroes remain because evil has been chased away. Planar travel is difficult because most heroes have shut down portals to prevent chaotic and evil forces to get through... it is a world where the light has won and has grown fat during peace.

The concept? Take the players through the heroic tier playing through adventures where the world is falling into chaos. The paragon tier spent chasing down major threats to the world and then in the final epic tier finally preventing the destruction of all the planes but in the end they save everything but the world is a dark and evil place... the game will be very dark and very evil and basically the downfall of a civilized world but the players are not going to be on the failing end of a stick of course... they just can't be everywhere.

It will be a definite game where choices about who is going to be saved and kind of a choose a path game because nothing is safe and evil is coming forth like a black cloud of death and they are going to have to choose where and how they make a stand... So the short adventures will just cover what is happening to them right there and over the course of the adventures they will begin to find out what is going on.

DESTROYING MY OWN STORY

I have always had one problem in my games. I try to develop these far arcing background stories about the villains and everything going on... I have found that players really don't care. In my last few games, I am focusing on the what is happening to my players right now and focusing my design time on that instead of backstory. I am letting the game create the history and if a player wants to know something then I tell them but my backstories are just for me now. I no longer tell my players anything... unless they want to research it or find out.

DESTROYING HISTORY

The best way to focus on the characters in my game is to destroy the past in the game. Begin by slowly creating a wasteland so by the time they are 10th level the skies are always filled with ash from burning civilization and there is nothing they can do to stop it... each FHF game will have a theme... survival, assassination, spying, etc... and instead of having this arcing background the story will just develop on what is happening and where the players are.

BRINGING RUIN TO THE GAME

The first thing the players will have to learn is not being able to buy anything. After the first few games I will take what is available to them down to nothing. Trade will stop completely. They will be small players in a massive World War and as time goes on the ruin will get worse to where some adventures might just be trying to get food for a pocket of survivors and then dealing with desperate innocent people or mobs of good people turned to highway robbery. Laying the foundation for an apocolypse is important. But every adventure just needs to be set into the setting of this crumbling world. So more than anything, this is more like a campaign world set in a time of a War spanning the entire world, not even mentioning the war in the Astral Sea and across the planes. It's literally going to be an apocalyptic game where the characters will go from a civilized world to the brink of planar apocalypse and maybe save all creation.... in small four hour games, once a week.

Players control a school. Through winning (and losing) matches and having their own goals in each session they are awarded renown and experience. Experience is used to purchase powers. Money is used to get gladiators and upgrade the school. It can also be used for bribes and stuff like that.

Each game session will take place on a battlemap that will have specific and challenging gladiator style events like sports events... there will also be deathmatches... sometimes players will be randomly teamed. A player may also purchase animals and monsters for his school.

The problem I am running into right now is a point system to determine who/what a player can send into the arena. I will probably post this into the forums as well but I wanted to post here first. I thought about using the miniatures point system but it won't work because there will be custom built characters also.

Here is where I am... Monsters will have a level based score with a multiplier for minion, standard, elite or solo... and player type characters will be based on a level with multiplier with adding in some sort of gear score multiplier....

Any ideas?

And that I did. I only played until my Dwarven Cleric got to level 3. There is also the Halfling Wizard, Human Fighter and the Elven Rogue. Now you have to realize that this game is $15 bucks and is pretty much a clone of the old console games like Baldur's Gate (not the PC version, the console version) or that Norrath game.

This game is based on the 4th edition but it is a console game, not a pc game. My favorite thing is the fact that the roles are definitely a huge part of the game. No classes can heal except the cleric. The fighter has the block ability that pretty much let's him deflect all the damage (a little gets through), the wizard pounds the hell out of stuff and the rogue is definitely a cross between a ranger and a rogue with the bow but has a focus in strength too.

For $15 go out and get this game if you have an XBOX. If you enjoy the Baldur's Gate style hack and slash gameplay, this is a game for you. It is glitchy but the game is also there to expand and grow. In my mind, a series like this will be a constant game on XBOX Arcade now. There are glitches but most are always present in the D&D games. There is no CGI, everything is pretty much kind of a voiced over motion comic. But is it cool as a hack and slash game... definitely.

I skipped the trial and went right to buying it. My wife and I love these games, especially with local multiplayer. I'll get to that in a bit. I started up my cleric Stonestrife and went right to playing the solo offline mode to learn to play. It is all easy. There are some camera issues and they should have stopped the graphics from blocking line of sight to characters in some cases but once you get to fighting, it's a blast. Each player has a definite feel to them. Clerics can get right in and mix it up on the front line with the cone attack and heals. Fighters are hitting multiple opponents with their specials. Rogues can run around and destroy targets or lay down fire from the rear. I haven't played the wizard much and the wizard felt like a ranged combat character instead of a controller.

The coolest thing are the ways enemies fight. They have roles, the AI is pretty good and they will use abilities on you. About an hour into the game, I was fighting and the goblins started resurrecting... the shaman in the back fired off with his ranged attacks and was resurrecting the enemy. Kind of had that Diablo feel right in the beginning with those shaman guys that rezzed their allies but the enemies definitely are confined to their roles too.

In mulltiplayer I got into one good game where I definitely felt like a cleric and everyone wasn't just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Most of my multiplayer consisted of everyone running as fast as they could, ignoring health and dying a lot.

The worst experience was definitely in local multiplayer. The camera angles were constantly annoying, you couldn't see what was going on because of a door arch in the way made everything black and there was no zoom in or out. My wife and I were constantly running away just to get the camera angle to work with us but it was still fun.

For $15 if you like to play the hack and slash, kill collect loot and kill some more this is definitely a good game. It is an arcade game, not a full featured blockbuster game like Dragon Age. I think it takes 5 hours if you rush the game. I kind of see this game as a beginning to what is coming in the future. WotC should take this and run with it. Creating games based on old adventures, stuff that already exists in modules and just start creating a series of games for it. Sure, they have to do some work on the game as it is but that will come with time and while this game has a few glitches, I like it... I really like it for only $15.

What was wrong with it?

• Where are the three dimensions that we saw in the previews a few years ago?
• Why can't I just pick an attack and auto-roll everything against the target?

These are just the two big ones right off the bat. There are others out there that have the same thing as this Virtual Table and they have been there for years.

What's good?

• It's linked into the books pretty good.
• You can easily upload the work you did in the Monster/Adventure Builder.
• It's pretty easy and there is voice (everything has voice now though)

So, yes, to quote my russian buddy "I am dissapoint." I mean this sucks. I held onto insider for a long time in hopes that the Virtual Table would be more than just another RPG over the internet like the half-dozen that are already out there... and two of them do it better. So, no, I won't be playing anymore. I'll probably keep my Insider - this doesn't change anything for my home games, I just thought it might allow us to skip the two hour drive two of my friends have to make to come play every Sunday and we can play at home once a week.To sum it up:

It is a beta, I understand. But, in all this mess WotC failed to provide the foundation of a cool virtual system. Even if it was complete, it would just be the same as others. So, here is a little advice:

Take a tried and true gaming engine. Create a turn based system, customized characters - almost make it a Neverwinter Nights game with a torn down turn based system with visible rolling dice. IT SHOULD NOT FEEL LIKE GAMING AT A TABLE. It should feel like something completely new. Because it is. Don't try to pretend to be a game table. Be a Virtual One. Allow for a little more immersion into the game. I am not saying make it animated but even crude animation might be fun. Really. If I had a fighter with a sword and initiative was rolled - animation of that person pulling out a sword. The minatures are just markers on a table, even if that changes it doesn't even look designed to ever be a 3D experience. It is a decade behind other software - even if it is just a beta.

Finding that Story

In my mind, today's (4e) Dungeons and Dragons is more like a fast paced choose your own adventure instead of the old method of tracking every little detail like you would find in 1st or 2nd edition. But when it comes down to it, Dungeons and Dragons is a story in which the players determine the course and the DM determines the events. That at the essence is the core of every great game. DM's that create their world and want the adventure to go 1, 2, 3 are going to find that players are really good at throwing a wrench into anything. Instead, a DM needs to allow the players to evolve the story. I find that just creating events that are going to take place and keep them flexible is the best plan. It's my secret anyway, but here is another one.

Where do I get the idea?

Well the foundation of any story is who the heroes are. Start there. Every one of the characters in the game should have a reason to be where they are. I get my ideas from the news and newspaper. They will not resemble the actual event but provide the diving board that I use to jump in the pool. Here are examples from a page of today's LA Times:

LAPD Canine Officer Shot

9/11 Mastermind to be Tried in Court

Obama Formally Launches Reelection Effort

Nuclear Plant Pours Radioactive Water into Sea

Southwest Expected to Cancel 100 More Flights

This is a quick list. Taken today of only the headlines. I didn't go digging around, didn't waste any time doing so. You can get a completely different list every day. That's five adventure ideas. The quick conversion applied to my gaming group.

Guard Killed by Werewolf

Captured Villain to be Executed in Town Square

Town mayor race becomes more than just an election

Magic artifact begins leaking power and infecting citizens of a isolated island

Trade no longer coming out of a small town known for exporting high end art

Now you can run with any of these but it gives you more than enough, original unique starting points to go on. I would personally go with the leaking artifact but that is my preference.

How do I get the players involved?

Always provide a reason for every hero to be there, it should be different but cooperative... meaning don't have two different PC's that have to bring back the cursed artifact. One might have to kill, one might have to collect something... I'm not saying make it generic - I'm saying make it personal and cooperative. Perhaps the ranger needs to scout out the opposition for someone, the fighter has heard of a magic sword taken by a orc and passed down through his sons, a mage wants to find a secret scroll that will unlock the ability for his magic missiles to always hit... I mean it is endless and each player has a goal in the story and has a reason to connect with it - EVEN IF IT IS SIMPLE. In fact, I have found that simple is sometimes best. Let the players complicate it. As a DM, make it simple - players will complicate and make the story interesting all on their own.